Ancienne banque et maison de directeur, Langemuntstraat 2-4 — Zele

Former bank office (no. 2) and manager's house (no. 4) in the Art Deco style marking the street corner, designed in 1925 by the architect Adolf Keppens of Zele for Jean and Benoit Rubbens, operators of the Rubbens liqueur distillery opposite; they were built by the contractor Karel Keppens and the joiner Leon Van den Hof. First intended for the Kredietbank and later the Bank van Brussel, the complex was restored in 2004-2005 by the Fobe-Rubbens family. Of two storeys under a continuous half-hipped saddle roof of machine-made tiles, it combines a three-bay house and an office of three bays, a canted corner and one bay; taller projections between pilaster strips carry a chevron-shaped and a straight dormer, and the windows and gate with chamfered upper corners contrast with the other rectangular openings. The red brick is enlivened by ashlar (plinth, sills, quoins), glazed brick for the entablature and pilaster strips, and ironwork in the two-part glazed gate; geometric Art Deco motifs adorn the chevron-shaped lintels, the stylised elongated modillions under the deeply overhanging wooden cornice, the door of no. 4 and the relief decoration of the gate. The ensemble is recorded in the Flemish architectural heritage inventory.

Translated from the French original.